Saturday, December 29, 2018

Another martyr for the Octave of Christmas. How fitting to consider such a holy bishop while our bishops are accused and maligned, perhaps in some cases rightly so. Nevertheless the murder of Becket ought to be a cautionary tale to those who trust laymen to exact justice upon the hierarchy, based upon interpretations of what someone reportedly said or did. Becket was killed because the king's knights believed that was what the king wanted. They assumed as much.

Today Church Militant is accusing Cardinal Dolan of cover up in the case of Fr. Timone of NY, formerly credibly accused of abuse. CM is pushing "Breaking News" claiming: Cardinal O'Malley reports Cardinal Dolan for allowing credibly accused priest to stay in active ministry, even as late as last week. Comments on the post are ridiculous smears. Church Militant must imagine themselves as knights of Henry II - taking their revenge on Cardinal Dolan for an earlier snub of Michael Voris.

Friday, December 28, 2018

William Holman Hunt's painting 'The Triumph of the Innocents' softens the blow of the massacre executed by Herod (a figure of the Anti-Christ), depicting the souls of the boy martyrs accompanying the Holy Family who fled the terror and took refuge in Egypt.

Dia de los Santos Inocentes

Today kids rule.

It was one of a series of days known as the Feast of Fools, and the last day of authority for boy bishops. Parents temporarily abdicated authority. In convents and monasteries the youngest nuns and monks were allowed to act as abbess and abbot for the day. - Source

Thursday, December 27, 2018

"Saint John the Evangelist is blessing the poisoned chalice given him by a pagan priest of Ephesus to test him, but the poison escapes from the chalice in the form of a small two-headed dragon, as Jacobus de Voragine recounts in his Golden Legend (1228-1298)... Saint John the Evangelist is depicted holding a chalice, an allusion to his being put to the test by the high priest of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. The high priest said to him: "If you want me to believe in your god, I will give you some poison to drink and, if it does not harm you, it means that your god is the true God." Thus the picure shows Saint John making the gesture of blessing which was to neutralize the poison escaping from the chalice in the form of a small two-headed dragon. He was then able to drink the potion, according to the legend."

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

It's because I've lost interest in much of what I used to write about, and more so, what others write about. It seems to me that we only have problems if we allow ourselves to have problems. The things we worry about and endlessly discuss - especially those things out of our control - will all be solved one way or another.

Sister Wendy died today. She was a hermit, art historian-critic, and a spiritual writer I admired very much. She lived in a small, unheated caravan-trailer on the property of a Carmelite monastery. She slept on the floor. Not a worry in the world.

Everything gets resolved you know.

I didn't follow Christmas at the Vatican nor on media. I went to a quiet Mass in a church old people frequent. Very quiet, very hidden.

Lovely peace, and simple joy.

I had a fire outside and lighted candles, decorated Our Lady's shrine in lights and fresh Babies Breath, fed the critters apples, nuts, and seeds, and prayed my rosary. My cat remaining indoors but watch through the window. It seemed to me very Tuscan, very Franciscan.

Veritatis Splendor

About Me

... My idea of what I am is falsified by my preoccupation about what I do. And my illusions about myself are bred by contagion from the illusions of other men. We all seek to emulate one anothers imagined greatness....If I do not know who I am, it is because I think I am the sort of person everyone around me wants me to be. I have asked myself whether I wanted to become what everybody else seems to want to become... only to realize that I do not admire what everyone else seems to admire. I have only thus begun to live after all... But it is very late. - Adapted from a quote by Thomas Merton

Holy Face of Jesus

Show us your face and we shall be saved. "Each soul is the object of My special love. That is why I am so grateful to those who are resourceful and bringing back sinners to Me. Keep this in mind then. I gave My life for them in the most atrocious torture, for these poor beloved ones. A humble repentance, and they are already on My heart. So speak gently to them. Speak with tenderness. A brusque remark could drive them farther away." - He and I

Prayer to St. Michael

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.